ICYMI: Administration Must Stop Raisi From Entering U.S.

Assassination Plots Against Americans Underscore Necessity Of Denying Visa Request 

(New York, N.Y.) — Days after the Iranian regime announced President Ebrahim Raisi’s intention to seek an entry visa to the United States to attend the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for plotting the assassination of former U.S. National Security Advisor Ambassador John Bolton, a member of the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Advisory Board.

In response, UANI Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, warning that an “attack against Americans isn’t merely state sponsorship of terrorism. It should be treated as an act of war,” and calling for President Joe Biden to deny Raisi’s request. 

In the op-ed, Lieberman and Wallace state, “The first step—and the least the U.S. should do—is exercise its sovereign right to deny an entry visa to Mr. Raisi … Mr. Biden’s duty, first and foremost, is to protect the American people. Congress has acknowledged this duty, granting the president authority to deny a visa to anyone for “security, terrorism, and foreign policy” reasons.” 

To read Senator Lieberman and Ambassador Wallace’s “No Visa For Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi” in The Wall Street Journal, please click here. 

The Biden Administration has not yet publicly stated its intention concerning the visa request. To protect against the possibility of Raisi coming to New York, UANI is calling on Manhattan hotels, particularly those that have previously hosted Iranian delegations – the InterContinental New York Barclay, Millennium Hilton, Warwick New York, and the former Hilton Manhattan East hotel now owned by Westgate Resorts – to refuse to play host to Raisi and his regime. The hotels have not disclosed their policies on doing business with mass murderers like Raisi and other individuals on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals that are subject to secondary sanctions.  

To read UANI’s resource Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi: President of Iran, please click here. 

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